Mahabharata is an epic that we have all lived through our growing years in India. In Hindu religion Mahabharata plays a corner stone role as during this battle Lord Krishna says to the great warrior Arjuna the basic tenets to lead life, leading to the documentation of 'Bhagwat Gita' the holy book of Hindus. The word 'Mahabharata' is a sum of 'Maha' and 'Bharata'. 'Maha' in Hindi meaning great and 'Bharata' is the historic names of India. So Mahabharata is the take of Great India.
As I develop this article, I don't focus on the traditional origins of Mahabharata as being narrated by sage Vyasa and penned by God Ganesha himself. Rather I want to locate it's earliest origins.
Mahabharata started as an orally-transmitted tale of the charioteer bards. The oldest preserved parts of text of Mahabharata dates back to around 400 BCE, though the detailed epic appears to have taken shape between 8th and 9th BCE. The Mahabharata text took it's final form around early 4th century BCE under the Gupta Dynasty. According to Mahabharata itself, this tale is extended from a shorter version that was simply called Bharata. Unlike the vedas, which have been preserved letter-perfect, the Mahabharata is a popular tale which have been adapted by multitudes of reciters to various changes in languages and style.
Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known with it's longest version consisting of over 200,000 individual verse lines and about 1.8 million words in total. To give you an idea, the Mahabharata is ten times the length of the Illiad and the Odyssey combines. It is four times the length of the Ramayana.
In historical context, the Mahabharata can be given the same importance as that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer or the Quran. Among Indian tradition this can be considered as the fifth veda. The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works.
The epic war of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata has been estimated by historians to date back to the Indian Iron age around 10th century BCE. Great Indian mathematician and astrologer Aryabhatta estimated the Mahabharata war to have taken place on 18 February 3102 BCE based on planetary conjunctions. This date has become important in Hindu traditions as also the date of disappearance of God Krishna from earth!
As I develop this article, I don't focus on the traditional origins of Mahabharata as being narrated by sage Vyasa and penned by God Ganesha himself. Rather I want to locate it's earliest origins.
Mahabharata started as an orally-transmitted tale of the charioteer bards. The oldest preserved parts of text of Mahabharata dates back to around 400 BCE, though the detailed epic appears to have taken shape between 8th and 9th BCE. The Mahabharata text took it's final form around early 4th century BCE under the Gupta Dynasty. According to Mahabharata itself, this tale is extended from a shorter version that was simply called Bharata. Unlike the vedas, which have been preserved letter-perfect, the Mahabharata is a popular tale which have been adapted by multitudes of reciters to various changes in languages and style.
Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known with it's longest version consisting of over 200,000 individual verse lines and about 1.8 million words in total. To give you an idea, the Mahabharata is ten times the length of the Illiad and the Odyssey combines. It is four times the length of the Ramayana.
In historical context, the Mahabharata can be given the same importance as that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer or the Quran. Among Indian tradition this can be considered as the fifth veda. The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works.
The epic war of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata has been estimated by historians to date back to the Indian Iron age around 10th century BCE. Great Indian mathematician and astrologer Aryabhatta estimated the Mahabharata war to have taken place on 18 February 3102 BCE based on planetary conjunctions. This date has become important in Hindu traditions as also the date of disappearance of God Krishna from earth!
